AlexWalsh

Hmmmm... a factory reconditioned hard drive. About as good as buying used paint. How much is your data worth? Probably at least the $70 additional cost to get a new one of these that will fail a little less often.

aplio

A lot of horrible 1 star reviews on Amazon, 91 out of 538. http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Satellite-Wireless-External-STBF500101/product-reviews/B004Z0S7K6/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addTwoStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

prncplanet

You can get a Brand New 500GB portable drive with free shipping online for the same price as this one, after accounting for the $5 shipping. For example, right now Amazon has a new USB 3.0 500GB HP portable drive listed for $54.97.

badhabit12

You can get a Brand New 500GB portable drive with free shipping online for the same price as this one, after accounting for the $5 shipping. For example, right now Amazon has a new USB 3.0 500GB HP portable drive listed for $54.97.

I can almost envision the GOD'S OF WOOT crowded around their celestial viewing portal drinking honeyed Meade and roaring with laughter every time a foolish mortal hits the purchase button.

That dream aside ,,,,, I had purchased one of these wireless HD's. Returned the first one because It appeared defective. Received a replacement only to have the same issues. Returned that and just went with NONE WIRELESS. The concept sounds great but it's implementation is one huge Cluster @#$&. The more I researched into the problem the more I am convinced that a marketing executive is running this company ( not an enginier) and wanted to do this with spending ZERO DOLLARS on the software side of it. It appears company documentation shows they were well aware of any problems. But figured some fancy adds would solve everything. Actually they could be right.

mightyvoice

My experience with Seagate is that they budget huge percentages of their money towards Customer Support that would be much better spent on quality assurance.
Which is, of course, the nice way of saying that their customer support is good, but every product they've sent me has been faulty.

ctapley99

This drive can be used as your typical USB 3.0 portable HDD and works fine as such.

However, unlike the portable HDDs a few users have mentioned above, this HDD can be connected to wirelessly, allowing multiple devices like phones and tablets to access files (movies, songs, whatever) from it concurrently. Also, because it creates a proprietary network, it can be used when no wireless network exists (such as on a plane or in a car) for this multi-device wireless streaming.

So it definitely fills a nitch... We use ours when the family travels, loading 300 movies on it and letting everyone watch whatever the or she wants at the same time on a tablet or iPad, without filling those devices with the media.

That said, the native software is an epic FAIL. The hack mentioned above is a significant improvement, to the point of basically being a requirement to use the device wirelessly with any success..

fshoemak

I did not research this all the much but to those that say this device gets poor reviews I suggest http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z0S7K6/?tag=dealswoot-20&hvadid=43830630929&hvpos=1o2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14686350141232587368&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8iy13h0skd_bu
or just jump over to amazon and look at the reviews. They seem pretty good to me.

dracodrago

You can't really compare this to an every day external hard drive though. The purpose of this hard drive, in my opinion, is more the fact that you can stream your pictures and videos and such from the hard drive to your tablets and can watch movies. So if you have 1-3 iPads for example and are going on a road trip or vacation and have this guy with videos it's basically like a portable DVD player now. So getting a regular hard drive isn't really a compatible alternative for this one, unless you just want a hard drive to store stuff, in that case I would not recommend buying this at all.

It's a cool concept. But I've only had bad experiences with Seagate. The last hard drive I bought from them I copied all my data off my computer because it was dying and then I wiped the computer clean. The hard drive died the very next day.

desaber

mightyvoice wrote:My experience with Seagate is that they budget huge percentages of their money towards Customer Support that would be much better spent on quality assurance.
Which is, of course, the nice way of saying that their customer support is good, but every product they've sent me has been faulty.

+1
They are already not the sturdiest of drives. a refurb just increases your chances of failures.

PeteCal

mightyvoice wrote:My experience with Seagate is that they budget huge percentages of their money towards Customer Support that would be much better spent on quality assurance.
Which is, of course, the nice way of saying that their customer support is good, but every product they've sent me has been faulty.

Sounds like the route Detroit Autos took in the 1970s. "They don't build cars in Detroit, they just start them there and finish them at the dealers". Under warrentee of course. And only what the buyer caught in the first year.

That means nothing. You have to realize the wealth of people that purchase things on line do not know how to properly rate items. If an item shows up a day later than they expected, they give it a 1 star. If they can't figure out how to use it, they give it a 1 star. If they are having a bad day and forgot to charge up this item, or use something correctly, they let their anger give it a 1 star. You have to wade thru all the ridiculous reasons why people give out reviews that don't even have to do with the product itself, but mainly on user error.

pinthong

This drive can be used as your typical USB 3.0 portable HDD and works fine as such.

However, unlike the portable HDDs a few users have mentioned above, this HDD can be connected to wirelessly, allowing multiple devices like phones and tablets to access files (movies, songs, whatever) from it concurrently. Also, because it creates a proprietary network, it can be used when no wireless network exists (such as on a plane or in a car) for this multi-device wireless streaming.

So it definitely fills a nitch... We use ours when the family travels, loading 300 movies on it and letting everyone watch whatever the or she wants at the same time on a tablet or iPad, without filling those devices with the media.

That said, the native software is an epic FAIL. The hack mentioned above is a significant improvement, to the point of basically being a requirement to use the device wirelessly with any success..

Exactly what I use mine for - two kids with 16gb iPad minis that have no room for multiple movies. Makes road trips a breeze.

baller

NorthernDragon wrote:DO NOT buy this device. It uses the WPA protocol for wireless security, which is NOT secure and is easily cracked. You'll be opening your entire network to hackers if you buy this thing.

manhandsha

You can get a Brand New 500GB portable drive with free shipping online for the same price as this one, after accounting for the $5 shipping. For example, right now Amazon has a new USB 3.0 500GB HP portable drive listed for $54.97.

This isn't a standard drive, this is for storing media and then wirelessly streaming that content to multiple wireless devices while out and about.

Ringo4422

I am thoroughly amused how Woot editors removed all the negative comments about both this product and Woot support itself. This is EXACTLY what I meant by Woot (Amazon) only cares about the numbers they present to their shareholders.

bluemaple

Ringo4422 wrote:I am thoroughly amused how Woot editors removed all the negative comments about both this product and Woot support itself. This is EXACTLY what I meant by Woot (Amazon) only cares about the numbers they present to their shareholders.

@Ringo4422, point taken on the comment stripping by Woot, but it is hard to argue Amazon bows to the "shareholders" - they've rarely made a dime since the beginning. In fact, some folks consider Amazon to be a Philanthropic Organization due to the apparent lack of a profit motive. ;-)

glennstep

You can get a Brand New 500GB portable drive with free shipping online for the same price as this one, after accounting for the $5 shipping. For example, right now Amazon has a new USB 3.0 500GB HP portable drive listed for $54.97.

hondac95

Been back/forth on whether buying this or let it go...like the idea behind it and for $50 will give it a try. I am not scared about being reconditioned as this does not necessarily means the HDD failed, but the WiFi might had instead and for $50 I will try it. One thing I had learned over the years is that normally reconditioned items work better than production line devices as these have been fixed out of any problem not thought about initially. Worst case scenario I will remove the HDD and use it stand alone or maybe add a bigger drive or maybe an SSD. Anyway, companies can't make everyone happy so you'll always going to have 2 sides of a story. I guess I'll make my own once it gets here.

tattooedbear wrote:That means nothing. You have to realize the wealth of people that purchase things on line do not know how to properly rate items. If an item shows up a day later than they expected, they give it a 1 star. If they can't figure out how to use it, they give it a 1 star. If they are having a bad day and forgot to charge up this item, or use something correctly, they let their anger give it a 1 star. You have to wade thru all the ridiculous reasons why people give out reviews that don't even have to do with the product itself, but mainly on user error.

Really? Are you serious?
Reviews may mean nothing to you, but they mean everything to me. I have some ability to read them and figure out the bad ones. The same as I do in this forum.

cantharis

Wow some of the people in here are pretty clueless comparing this to a regular external drive, the main selling point of this one is mobility.

If u just need an external drive then there are better deals than this, i paid 75$ for a 1.5 TB usb 3 brand new back in sep, at $49 plus tax and SH its an Ok deal, i suppose the enclosure plus the wifi hardware plus the OS is worth at least $30-40 so with a refurb drive for anither 10 bucks its not too bad

hondac95

I wonder they will not give much detail on this as the main feature is the ability of transferring wirelessly. Since the enclosure "will buffer before transfer within it's OS (whichever it is but I am certain is Linux based)" the rate will be based on the wireless connection. Normally in these type of applications a low end HDD is normally used (5400rpm or lower) for reduce power consumption.

mattryan

escalante wrote:Really? Are you serious?
Reviews may mean nothing to you, but they mean everything to me. I have some ability to read them and figure out the bad ones. The same as I do in this forum.

So then you realize 90% of the 1 star reviews were from apple fanboys who expect to be spoon fed their content in the manner apple does their stuff. And of those 90% another 75% are unverified purchases. Meaning they could be lying just to bring the rating down...

Ringo4422

Spin rate and transfer rate mean little. This streams data from the drive via WiFi, meaning the transfer speed is as good as the 80211 wifi signal will allow. Wireless N (if you actually connect in this mode) in the real world is actually no better than 80 mbps, a whole lot slower than any hard drive will do in itself.

shadow7118

NorthernDragon wrote:DO NOT buy this device. It uses the WPA protocol for wireless security, which is NOT secure and is easily cracked. You'll be opening your entire network to hackers if you buy this thing.

baller wrote:I could be wrong, but at most you'd only be exposing whatever was on the hard drive to any nearby hackers correct? Meaning, if you simply have some movies on there, they could get to that.

Till they 'Pivot' thru your system to get to your other sensitive data!!

badhabit12

Ringo4422 wrote:I am thoroughly amused how Woot editors removed all the negative comments about both this product and Woot support itself. This is EXACTLY what I meant by Woot (Amazon) only cares about the numbers they present to their shareholders.

How to get your opinion heard .....
Hide it in an actual product review from a purchase with humor is one way (see my example). Its like insulting someone to their face and they they just smile back, never seeing the face slap.

Its a style of writing used by US / World propaganda specialists to creates a negative image in a persons mind at a psychological level but on top appears innocent. (used all the time Before invading a country or destabilizing a Government). It can be more effective than a plain old RANT and RAGE. We tune those out unconsciously, because of the large volume on the internet or in our media rich lives. (see my example)

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